Alaska Airlines, What’s Happening?

 I’ve tried four or five times to book tickets to visit my grandkids in San Francisco for Thanksgiving on the Alaska Airlines website.  I’ve been a loyal fan of the airline for many years.  They’ve been one of the best.  Before starting this post, I checked to see if others are having problems too.  

There’s a Reddit discussion: Alaska has lost its step

And a Facebook discussion about logging on problems

Seattle Times writes about Alaska Airlines reviewing IT system after two shutdowns in four months.

So I’m not alone here though the issues are different.

We’re at the end of our Türkiye  visit,  We’ve been gone almost six weeks now.  I first tried when we got here.  I was able to pick flights and get prices, but when I wanted to pay, it didn’t work. 

I tried again from Mauritius where we visited my daughter and her family who are there for six months.  Similar problems.  I could get flights, but it couldn’t get me through the payments.

I tried again from Turkey when we got back.  This time I could book the outgoing flight for Nov 16 and the return flight for Dec. 3, but when I hit the pay button, it showed the two flights both on the same day - Nov 16.  I tried several times, but although I had the right dates starting and picking the flights, they went to a page that had me flying to and back on the same day.  

My phone is off roaming while we’re traveling, but in getting eSIMS, my wife got a US phone number with limited minutes that could call over internet.  I used it to call the Alaska MVP line.  This is a number for people with MVP status on Alaska Airlines.  It used to be answered with no wait at all.  Lately, there’s been a bit of a wait.  

This time it said there was a 28 minute wait.  OK, let’s see how much time I have on this phone number.  I couldn’t have them call back, because I was calling via internet.  (Could I have?  I don’t really know if someone can call the number.)  After an hour I hung up.  

During that hour I booked two one way flights.  But this time the price was significantly higher than when I first started trying.  And the connections were not ideal. (Long overnight waits in Seattle or Portland in most cases). I wanted to use our companion fare ticket, but I wanted it on the round trip, not just one of the one way fares.  I was hoping that when I got to talk to someone, they could arrange that.

After 30 minutes on hold I went on to look up other airlines and found I could get round trip tickets, with much better times at half the price on Delta.  So, at the end of the hour of waiting, I hung up the phone, bought tickets on Delta, and cancelled the Alaska Airlines tickets.  

Alaska, be better!